Schwebebahnen

In the late 1950s, six-year-old Josef moves with his parents from Cologne to Wuppertal into a house full of railway families. He is a strongly introverted loner who would prefer to just play the piano. He had to drop out of school in Cologne, but in his new home, he takes a second chance. When he meets Mücke, the daughter of the greengrocer across the street, a close friendship develops between the two children, helping him overcome his inhibitions. Gradually, he also opens up to other people, such as the priests of the Order of the Holy Cross, who teach him to read aloud and sing, or a youth coach who trains him in cross-country skiing. However, the strongest support comes from writing stories about suspended railway rides along the Wupper, expeditions with quirky animals at the zoo, or adventurous battles with youth gangs in a nearby forest. Hanns-Josef Ortheil tells a touching and intense story of inner and outer reconstruction in post-war West Germany. "Suspended Railways" is the story of an initially autistic boy who discovers his own fantasy worlds carried by music. At the same time, it is a grand panorama of a deeply traumatized society, where people lead a quiet life marked by the Second World War and still act fearfully in the face of a looming war.